Audiopile Review: Wholly restorative ambient-house and luxuriant IDM from Jared Carrigan’s long-running René Najera guise. Head of the LA-based Jungle Gym tapes label, host to many guises and a serious scene-connector of the electronic and experimental cassette underground that reaches back more than a decade, Carrigan’s René Najera project lands at the like-minded 100% Silk imprint. It sits neatly alongside the label’s recent output from the likes of Soshi Takeda, Akasha System, and Precipitation, the latter making a guest appearance here, so if those names spark a warm feeling in you, then you’re in for a proper treat. Carrigan’s carefully honed balance of intricate layers of bubbling percussion backed by intertwining radiant synths and sunrise ambiance evoke that nostalgia-tickling, mossy rainforest-house sound that’s been the label trademark for the past half decade. A surprise vocal guest appearance from hypnagogic-pop chanteuse and 100% Silk/Not Not Fun mainstay Maria Minerva brings the album full circle to the label’s early days. At times deceptively simplistic on the surface, the delicately pieced together tracks, best heard through a nice set of headphones for full absorption, reveal the depth of a producer at the top of his game and in full control of the dials. Another absolute must-grip from 100% Silk.

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Minnesota-born, L.A.-based musician, mastering engineer, and co-founder of the Jungle Gym label Jared Carrigan records solo and in collaboration under a web of guises: V. Kristoff, Congo River Club House, Freaks of Nature, Easy Rider, Lac Seul, Las Cuevas, M.M.C.J., Scout Island, Twin Lakes. Of these, René Najera is his longest running and most liquid. One decade after the project’s 2015 debut (as Jungle Gym’s inaugural release, JG01), he presents his first vinyl full-length.

Painted Life took shape from the seeds of a 2023 set prepared for a string of shows in Japan. Elements were later remixed, finessed, and expanded by a cast of inner circle collaborators: Leech, Tile Plazas, Precipitation, Maria Minerva. Carrigan calls the album a “memory book” – each track a snapshot of cities and sessions, filtered through a fusion of club smoke, mood house, psychic acid, and sunrise electronica. It’s music of movement and discovery, celebratory and semi-improvised, chasing the pure essence of fleeting moments.